Helicopters often fly low over Waikiki Beach and the Diamond Head volcano on Oahu, but buzzing the beach and crater in a widebody DC-10 is another matter.
That's exactly what a retiring American Airlines Inc. captain did last month on his final flight - a low-level aloha near Honolulu. Turns out, it's a tradition among retiring pilots.Just after takeoff about 5:30 p.m. on July 28, the pilot of Flight 8 bound for Dallas-Fort Worth with as many as 290 passengers on board requested permission to veer off the normal departure route because it was his final flight. With permission from air traffic controllers, the pilot cut back the engines and swept the big bird weighing some 200 tons in close to the surf and the 761-foot volcano.
American says the pilot never flew below 1,000 feet, though stunned witnesses, four of whom phoned the Federal Aviation Administration, estimated the plane was between 200 and 400 feet or so off the water. One woman called from the 22nd floor of a hotel and "said she was looking down on top of the thing," said FAA spokesman John Clabes.
The FAA says the instrument that transmits altitude data from the aircraft was turned off during the pass, leaving no record of the actual altitude. "It's kind of a funny story, but it's not so funny. We don't think it's very funny," said Clabes. "We consider it to be a serious matter."
The airline says the 60-year-old pilot, whom it would not identify, was at an approved altitude performing a legal maneuver over water, and safety was never compromised. The FAA's control tower in Honolulu was watching throughout the incident and "considered it to be not an unsafe operation," Clabes said.
In fact, it is a tradition for retiring pilots to tip their wings to Waikiki on their retirement flights, an official in the Honolulu control tower said.
Still, the FAA is conducting an investigation, Clabes said. Investigators have interviewed four flight attendants, some of whom were extremely upset about the incident, believing that the plane might crash into the volcano. They've also written to the captain seeking a statement. And controllers involved have already received an "oral reprimand," Clabes said.
The airline says it plans no formal inquiry into the pilot's actions. "He's retired," a spokesman said. "He's no longer flying for us."